When the intensive use of email fosters resistance and perpetuates the bureaucratic characteristics
Résumé
Studies on the evolution of the bureaucratic model frequently refer back to competing theories, explaining bureaucratic model renewal or else bureaucratic model hybridisation. A pronounced characteristic of bureaucracies remains the individual control of the zones of uncertainty. Introduction and use of information technologies supposedly reduce the zones of uncertainty by improving information flows and information sharing within the organization.
A case study of a local authority investigates the intensive use of email by managers on the bureaucratic organization. We argue that intensive use of email in bureaucratic contexts in fact contributes to reinforcing the vicious circle of bureaucracy as originally described by Crozier (1964). The cultural traits of bureaucracy are characterised by remarkable stability. The bureaucratic vicious circle is associated to an electronic vicious circle, resulting in the
emergence of a bureaucratic organizational form, the e-bureaucracy.